3. Update! Update! Update!

I can't stress enough the importance of frequent updates! When you're starting a book, I recommend posting the first 2-3 chapters to hook people in, then updating a few times a week in the early stages. Once you've got a loyal reader base – you can pull this back a bit to a minimum of once a week. 

(obviously sometimes life gets in the way of updates, but as a rule I'd try to get at least one update out a week - especially when first starting out)

Updates are important for two reasons:

1. Every time you update it gives you a boost in the ranking algorithm (which determines whether or not your book gets onto the hotlist – a visible list of the top 1000 books within each of the genres). It's good to be in the hotlist because your book becomes more visible – and when more people can see it, more people can choose to read it!

2. Updating frequently means you're not giving whatever readers you have (even if that's only one reader to start with) a chance to forget you and your book! If you can engage a couple of people and get them to read every chapter, more will eventually come. You build up your reader base one person at a time. As good as your story may be – people aren't going to be waiting on the edge of their seats for months on end after you've posted a couple of chapters for the next one. They'll probably just go and read something else.